the misunderstood life of a techie

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another post about volume

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that tech people tend to like things louder than most. How else can you get the drums to sound as amazing as your new micing technique requires? Worship leaders also like the energy that comes from a louder mix.

For senior pastors, the volume can be a very sticky subject with the congregation, and I think there are probably some larger issues than the decibel level on Sunday morning that require his/her attention. I don’t know about your senior pastor, but mine isn’t ready to die on the hill of kicking subwoofers or the perfect drum mix.

Your pastor needs to know that you have the best for the whole church in mind when you or your team are mixing audio. Unfortunately it is really easy for production people to communicate something quite different: that your killer mix matters more than a bunch of old people complaining.

This brings up a couple questions…

What motivates your mix? Is it for it to sound as amazing as it can for the sake of sounding amazing (listen to those drums!)? Or is it to sound amazing so that the most people possible in your congregation can experience God?

Do you have a good understanding of what your church leadership needs from the mix? Who is the target audience? What is your church’s “sound”? What does the mix need to accomplish?

It needs to really clear between you, your team, your worship pastor, your producer…all the way up to the senior pastor on what the church’s stance on the mix and volume should be. From there, your pastor needs to know that you are dealing with it.

And by dealing with it, I don’t mean cranking it up so the drums sound incredible. Dealing with it is being tenacious to make it sound better and better, and then balancing that with what is best for the whole church.

Your senior pastor doesn’t want the mix to offend people. If they are going to be offended, let the Holy Spirit to do that.